The good ship Madleen (let’s not blame the yacht) sailed for Gaza carrying what even AlJazeera described as “a symbolic quantity” of aid that “would not have made much of a difference”. In fact, it was roughly equivalent to a single trip to CostCo… which is, I’d wager, what they probably did. In contrast, the US-Israeli backed GHF organisation delivered 34,000 boxes in 45 trucks totalling 2.5 million meals today.
But back to the boat. Clinging to its forestay was its intrepid leader (and future ‘kidnap victim’) Greta Thunberg, wearing her keffiyeh against the Mediterranean breeze and waving a Palestinian flag. Of course she got all the attention, but who else made up the dozen seafaring crew of the aptly-named Madleen?
Well, here they are with – I assume – self-described roles:
- Rima Hassan (France/Palestinian) – French Member of European Parliament, jurist, and civil rights advocate. Vocal critic of the Israeli blockade.
- Yasemin Acar (Germany) – German human rights campaigner, active in pro-Palestinian solidarity movements
- Baptiste André (France) – Doctor and humanitarian volunteer aboard to provide medical care
- Thiago Avila (Brazil) – Brazilian activist involved in long-term Palestinian solidarity work
- Omar Faiad (France) – Journalist with Al Jazeera covering the mission
- Pascal Maurieras (France) – Marseille-based IT specialist and CGT union activist
- Yanis Mhadi (France) – Journalist for online outlet Blast
- Şuayb Ordu (Turkey) – Turkish pro-Palestinian activist
- Sergio Toribio (Spain) – Spanish environmental activist affiliated with Sea Shepherd
- Marco van Rennes (Netherlands) – Dutch skipper and activist
- Reva Seifert‑Viard (France) – French environmental activist
The Daily Mail says that on her repatriation to Sweden, Ms Thunberg “reacted angrily” at being asked about the political opinions of her crew and said that she didn’t know because she “hadn’t had a phone”. Well, some of people Greta was sailing with openly support Hamas, or Hezbollah, or refuse to condemn the Oct 7th massacre.
Thiago Avila, according to The JC, called late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasralla – who he claims to have met – “inspiring” and “a martyred saint”, and attended his funeral. He refers to Israel as the “Zionist Entity” and “the real terrorists”. He says he “despises Israel and America” and earlier this year was filmed punching his fist in the air among a mob chanting “Death to Israel…. Death to America…. Victory to Islam”.
Yasemin Acar, according to ynet news, posted a video of her self dancing joyfully in her kitchen during Iran’s missile attack on Israel. She was also filmed at a protest changing signs which read “Destroy Hamas” to “Destroy Zionism”. She has also expressed racist anti-white sentiments.
Omar Fahad is, also according to ynet news, an journalist for Qatari propaganda channel Al Jazeera. In one of his reports – just days after the October 7th atrocity – he claimed IDF soldiers were the new Nazis carrying out a Holocaust in Gaza.
Rima Hassan, a lawyer and left-wing French politician said, according to the Jerusalem Post, that she viewed the October 7th attacks as “legitimate”. These remarks led French authorities to investigate her for potentially advocating terrorism. The Jerusalem Post also reported on her conspiratorial view that Israel killed its own citizens, the Bibas family, echoing Hamas propaganda. According to Franceinfo, she attended a demonstration in Jordan paying tribute to Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader killed in Iran.
Considering the context of their mission and spending more than a week at sea together, it is hard to believe the topic never came up. Perhaps journalists should be more persistent in asking Greta herself what her views on Hamas, Hezbollah, the October 7th attack, and terrorist violence in general are. She has used some potty-mouthed language in speaking about Israel before, so perhaps that’s a clue. France24 reports that Thunberg attended a “pro-Palestinian rally” in Berlin last year. Of course there is nothing intrinsically antisemitic about that.
But why was it held on October 7th? – on the anniversary of the worst massacre of Jews in the 21st century?
It is hard to shake off the suspicion that it was to gloat.
Of course she and her shipmates apparently did not have the stomach to watch footage of the atrocity itself. Cosplay radicals seldom do.
